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I don't understand why he wouldn't move to somewhere that doesn't have an extradition policy with the US. If you go down that path, it seems like you should pro
by bostonsre 5y ago
I don't understand why he wouldn't move to somewhere that doesn't have an extradition policy with the US. If you go down that path, it seems like you should probably be willing to abandon your life. It's the same with Ross Ulbricht, seems like it would be terrifying living with that sword of damocles hanging over your head absolutely constantly.
- djanogo 5y agoIf he goes somewhere which doesn't have extradition, FED's will just call him and tell him they will go public that he has $4B bitcoin and ALL criminals will be hunting them after that.
- gjs278 5y ago
- Server6 5y agoYou pay them off?
- alasdair_ 5y ago$4Bn can buy some pretty good fake identities.
- cgriswald 5y agoI'm not certain I understand. There are billionaires in the world already. How do they protect themselves from criminals? Granted, their billions aren't in cash. However, once he fled the country he could immediately start converting his position to other assets that aren't so easily stolen. He'd also be able to afford to hide himself, pay taxes and bribes, and pay for some security.
- mh- 5y agoMost billionaires aren't in the countries that lack extradition treaties. The few that are can be assumed to be paying steeply for protection, in both senses of the word.
- 35fbe7d3d5b9 5y agoHumans notoriously overestimate their competence and underestimate dangers they face. Combine that with a federal investigation that's going to be slow because 1) it's complex and 2) the feds will happily investigate you for years if it increases their chance of a conviction, and you've got a recipe for people who think they got away with it right up until the moment of arrest.
- dillondoyle 5y agoand underestimate the competence of governments/law enforcement.
- 300bps 5y agoI think it's more underestimating the attention span of governments/law enforcement. When someone steals your bike, the cops could spend weeks investigating, interviewing witnesses, searching Craiglist, Facebook Marketplace, staking out the neighborhood for anyone riding the stolen bike, etc. But they don't, because it's a bike. But steal $3.6 billion, you'll hold their attention for a bit!
- brightball 5y agoYea, listening to enough stories on Darknet Diaries about how people get caught it’s pretty crazy. Honestly makes working in the groups that catch people like this sound very interesting.
- aeturnum 5y agoThe work of preparing to leave the country is necessarily public in a way that doing crypto stuff might not be. I suspect they were worried that preparing to leave the country would tip their hand - and they could have been caught earlier if they tried it. It just turns out they were caught anyway.
- thebean11 5y agoHmm what work is that? Getting a visa? With that much cash I'd leave first (on a tourist visa) and figure the rest out later..
- bostonsre 5y agoYea, maybe bring your cat or dog but literally pack like you're going on vacation. If they arrest you before leaving the country then you were screwed already.
- markdown 5y agoAmericans don't need to apply for a Visa to visit most of the world. They just get one automatically on arrival. They could have just bought a Vanuatu passport with bitcoin (~$150k), then travelled there for a holiday. Leave the US with the US passport and arrive in Van with the Van passport. CHange their name in Vanuatu, then move to a 3rd country to settle permanently with a new name. Maybe change it one more time and gain citizenship in that third country, and that'd be enough to disappear for regular people. The spooks will still find you, but without extradition powers...
- fhood 5y agoThat requires that you did something that you are very sure the country you end up in won't just prosecute you for themselves. If your crime is massively embarrassing to the US govt you go to Russia, or heinous sexual assault of a 13yo, France. But I think most of the usual culprits in this case would just prosecute you.
- secondaryacct 5y agoWe disagree it was heinous and believe it's prescribed, thank you. Polanski is a French citizen and will not be given to the US, but if an american is demanded, we ll give him back on the double. It s what they seem not to explain in movies: we protect our brothers in citizenship against exaggerated foreign conviction, but not foreigners.
- erehweb 5y agoWhat do you mean by "prescribed" here?
- teddyh 5y agoHe means that the statute of limitations (a.k.a. prescriptive period) has run out.
- throwjs51009 5y agoWow, justification for rape right here. He was 43 when it happened. https://idlewords.com/2010/05/an_annotated_letter_from_roman_polanski.htm https://idlewords.com/2010/05/an_annotated_letter_from_roman... A link in there has expired. Archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20100130223615/http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html https://web.archive.org/web/20100130223615/http://www.thesmo...
- secondaryacct 5y agoNo justification for rape, we do not believe the americans are rational and contextualized his crime, and are only perceiving Polanski with an emotional lense, decades after the fact. I dont care myself, just telling you why we ll never give him as a country. We simply feel different emotions (here doubt in France vs horror in the US). No need to ad hominem me in isolation as if I supported rape. I just know the media portray him as a victim of a 120 years-sentence justice system. If he raped someone yday, like our ex-future-president DSK did in NYC, by all means, keep him, and we d give him back if he fled. But that also turned out a puritain whitch hunt in the end so it's hard to trust americans with our citizens.
- Mizza 5y agoI wish people would stop saying 'non extradition country' like that's a real thing. Brokep moved to Cambodia for that reason. They still got him anyway. If the powers want you, they can find away to get you. The only options I can imagine are publicly embarrassing the US government to the delight of Vladimir Putin or making a very large donation to the Cuban government.
- vmchale 5y agoYou can still be extradited, it's just not automatic.
- csmajorfive 5y agoI find it especially baffling considering he has Russian citizenship.
- tim333 5y agoHe probably didn't think he'd get caught. I mean it's not a large proportion of crypto thieves/fraudsters who are. Less than 1%?
- secondaryacct 5y ago
- wolverine876 5y agoIf they were so concerned, the much better and easier decision would be not to commit the crime in the first place. People who rob others and commit serious crimes have a problem with risk and self-control.
- freeopinion 5y agoTo degrade signal to noise, such people need to pay you and others willing to relocate to such jurisdictions. You know, to make it less obvious who is evading extradition. I wonder what the penalty is for accepting money to uproot your life because you have nothing to hide. Well, _had_ nothing to hide.
- spullara 5y ago$4B that you can't spend in the US (or any country that will allow for extradition) isn't nearly as good as $4B that you can.
- shp0ngle 5y agoWell, then you need to move to Russia or Venesuela or Iran or such. Goodbuy to the luxurious live you enjoy in SV. Part of being a financial criminal is to post about "hustle culture" on linkedin and doing LSD with VC buddies or something
- checkyoursudo 5y agoPeople with a lot of money live luxuriously in Russia. Not sure about the other countries. Just gotta be sure you didn't hijack any of Putin's bitcoins tho ...